Friday, March 27, 2020

Springtime in Safety Harbor

Hi Everyone -

I felt like you all might need a little cheer today. Despite the frightening and terrible news we're being inundated with, springtime has still come to Safety Harbor, and it's really beautiful. Glenn is now riding his bike every morning, and I am taking a long walk along Bayshore. We've gotten some good photos from our jaunts outside, as well as some just from around the house.

Hopefully these pics will brighten your day or at least provide a welcome distraction.




Baby gator don't care.
Baby snake don't care either.
No one seems to know for sure what kind of snake this is. But I performed good social distancing while taking this picture. Also, he was tiny. I zoomed in on him so he looks scarier.

Here are some sunrise pics from Glenn.







Here are some puppy pics...

Say a little prayer for Deucie. He's been up and down a lot lately and we're worried for him. I mean, he's 105 in dog years.


Here's Eva happily laying in the hole she dug in the yard.


So lots of flowers are in bloom around the house. Here are a few of them...






Our hibiscus bush is probably about 7 feet tall.

Gardenia







Glenn also got another shot of a bald eagle...on the same house I had seen one before.


In some "people can be awesome" news, my friend Amy packed up her kids yesterday - she said they needed to get out of the house - and they drove over here and planted a gift in my lawn as a surprise.

She texted me this pic from her car...her girls were very excited.


I came out to the front lawn to discover this:

It's a wind spinner thingie.
I took a video of it spinning in the wind, but for some reason the video wouldn't work on here, so imagine it spinning slowly in the breeze. Its very relaxing.

Ok, so by now you are probably thinking, "This is all fine and good, but I want to see MORE of Glenn's sunrise pictures!" Well, your wish is my command...

Even ducks like to watch the sunrise.






Alright folks, that's it for now. Hope you are all well and taking this one day at a time. Love you!

Friday, March 20, 2020

Self-Quarantining? Bored? Check out this wildly exciting blog post!

Hey Everyone -

It occurred to me recently that I am WAY behind in my family blogging. Last post was before Christmas, but hey - nothing really has changed in the world since then.

Hahahahahahahahaha.......takes breath....Ahhahahahaha! Whew!

Ok well, we do have the whole apocalypse to contend with. Hopefully you are all safe and sound and 6 feet away from any other human. Has this whole thing made anyone else super hungry? I am eating all our rations!

Anyway, so let me take you back to a simpler time and share some photos from the earlier part of the year, back when we were happily oblivious to the impending pandemic.

This picture of Eva was taken on Christmas Eve. (Christmas Eva). She is still happily oblivious.

Who's a good girl?
On Christmas Day, we took a walk and attempted to take some family selfies, which are amusing but not Christmas card quality. The dogs refused to cooperate.

The look on Eva's face! 
Dog across the street!
This is good except for my humidity hair and...where is Eva? (Hint: Look between Deuce's feet.)
Glenn later got a couple cute portraits of the pups.


Shhhhhh! She's sleeping!
Synchronized sleeping.
In January we started the process of renovating our kitchen. Which was great timing since we can't eat out anytime in the foreseeable future.

To refresh your memories, here was the kitchen before we had the cabinets painted and changed the hardware.


And here are some after pics.

Note the new pendant lights too.

I think the black countertops pop so much more with the white cabinets.

And then once the cabinets were done, we had a tile backsplash installed which I just love.


Glenn also installed this new wagon wheel light in our dinette. If you have some time on your hands, call him and ask him how the installation went.


Unrelated to anything, I saw a bald eagle "house sitting" during one of my walks. I didn't have the zoom camera with me, but you can tell what it is. He was HUGE.


Here are some other pretty pics Glenn took during this time. The first two were taken of a sunset on from Bascom's parking lot (another great restaurant...sigh!). The sunsets can be pretty dramatic down here.



Here are some sunrise pics he took down by the Safety Harbor Marina. I think he said he pulled off the road on his morning commute to go take these.





Also in early February, we got to go to another Pens - Lightning game with Chad and Lisha. The Pens lost and there was a fight in the stands right next to us, but we made it out alive and had a great time nonetheless. There was a huge tropical storm that swept in that night, just as we were getting home, and the dining table on Chad and Lisha's balcony was blown away!


Glenn was traveling on Valentine's Day, but we went to Clearwater Beach for a nice dinner out at Caretta's on the Gulf on the Sunday after. It was a little chilly, but we had an amazing dinner and got to watch the sunset.




Also, on a nice sunny day in Feb, I got my hair reblonded and took a selfie that I don't hate.

Hi!
Okay...moving on. In late February, my parents came down to visit for a few days and we had a really great time. The first full day, we went to the James Western & Wildlife Museum in St. Petersburg, which was one of the nicest museums I've ever seen.

(Photo credit: Dad)
Let's take a short virtual tour of some of the art...








Here are some of Glenn's pics - you'll see towards the end, he was a little more artsy, at times using filters on his iPhone.

















Anyway, BEAUTIFUL MUSEUM. I highly recommend it.

The next day, we took the folks to the Tampa Bay Downs for a little horse racing and gambling. Glenn won over $100 on one bet. The rest of us won a little and lost a little, but a good time was had by all. And it was a lovely day.




(Photo credit: Dad)
(Photo credit: Dad)

(Photo credit: Dad)
A great day!
Later at home, Mom and Deuce chilled out.


Speaking of Deuce, he does not like baby carrots. I put some in his food dish recently and I came out to the kitchen and saw this:

"Get these disgusting things out of here."
Anyway, great visit from my parents, and good timing, since no one can ever travel again. We also managed to see Chad and Lisha a couple weeks ago, before the full quarantine went into effect. I tried a pic of Lisha and myself, but it was not good. But these guys look cute.


Eva even likes Chad!
The weather has been beautiful and we've spent a number of evenings out by the fire listening to music. Not too shabby.


Alright, so that's probably enough for now. We have some new pics but I will share them in the next edition to give you all something to look forward to. Hope you all are staying safe and sane in these crazy times. If Glenn and I have to be stuck anywhere, we're happy to be stuck here!

Also, just for your amusement:

Create your own caption for this!
Love you guys!